1. Field of the Invention
The apparatus of the present invention relates to road working equipment. More particularly, the present invention relates to an improved spreader/grader for working road surfaces, including the ability to angularly adjust the spreader/grader blades in relation to the frame during operation of the apparatus.
2. General Background
In the construction or maintenance of land in general, and particularly roadbeds, it is desirous to have the ability to level the surface of the land, or roadbed, to make travel thereupon more efficient and easier. The present state of the art allows a mechanical spreader/grader to be pulled by a tractor or like vehicle, the spreader/grader having one or more blades along its base which cuts into the roadbed or land surface, and attempts to level the surface as the apparatus is pulled along. One such patented piece of equipment is disclosed and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,320,988, issued James Seal, which provides a spreader/grader attachable to a tractor, with the apparatus having a plurality of blades movably positionable between a pair of upright sidewalls, with the cutting edges of the blades rotatable about an axis to adjust their angular relationship to the surface to be graded, and the blades adjustable up and down to change the depth of the grading. The existing spreader/grader has shortcomings in that the blades are installed at a fixed angle to the length of the side wall. Optimum performance can not be achieved unless the blade angle with respect to the side wall is adjustable to accommodate the grading or spreading conditions. Further, the side walls in the rear of the spreader/grader are inclined away from the rear cutting blade, this does not allow the rear cutting edge to be placed close to a surface such as a wall.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have introduced into the art a spreader/grader apparatus which improves upon the current state of the art, and which offers a more simplified, yet more functional spreader/grader, which solves the problems in the art. Other prior art spread/graders are noted in the art, and together with the aforementioned Seal apparatus, will be listed in the prior art statement filed with this application.
Other objects of the invention will be obvious to those skilled in the art from the following description of the invention.